The One Who Outsmarted a Serial Killer [4]

Summary

Podcast Summary: "The One Who Outsmarted a Serial Killer" – Someone’s Hunting Us [Episode 4]

Podcast: Someone’s Hunting Us
Hosts: Rebecca Everett, Daisy Calabia Robertson
Publisher: NJ.com / The Star-Ledger
Release Date: February 10, 2026
Episode Description:
This episode dives into the double life of Khalil Wheeler-Weaver, an unassuming young man who preyed on Black women and girls in New Jersey in 2016. Blending chilling case details, survivor testimony, and psychological insight, the episode tells how one woman, Tiffany, outsmarted the serial killer and survived to identify him, helping end his reign of terror.

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Episode Overview

The hosts unravel the hidden life of Khalil Wheeler-Weaver, a serial killer who targeted vulnerable women while maintaining a façade as a friendly, "nerdy" guy from a law enforcement family. Through interviews with childhood friends, coworkers, and expert psychologists, the episode explores Wheeler-Weaver’s complex psychology, his childhood, the lead-up to his crimes, and the harrowing story of Tiffany—the one survivor who managed to escape and bring him to justice.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Hiding in Plain Sight: Khalil Wheeler-Weaver's Double Life

• [01:21–03:15]
  • Khalil came off as polite and unremarkable at his Shoprite security job, but coworkers describe strange behaviors—like decapitating bees by the store entrance.
  • A disturbing pattern: He talked about women with contempt and bragged inappropriately. His friend Scott reflected, “At the time...he was just being over the top, bragging about his sexual prowess. But now he thinks it might have been...him hinting he was killing those women.”
• [03:54–05:30]
  • Despite these red flags, those close to him—including friends and family—saw nothing overtly alarming. He maintained relationships, had a girlfriend, and appeared “disarming, even.”

2. Family, Friendships, and Early Life

• [06:09–07:12]
  • Khalil grew up in a relatively stable home in Orange, NJ; lost his father to a motorcycle accident at 14; later lived with a stepfather, an East Orange cop.
  • His best friend Ron Brown paints a picture of childhood innocence—“a little kid playing football in the park”—and recalls Khalil’s obsessions with plans for making money and later, law enforcement.
  • Notable Quote [06:28]: Ron Brown: “It became more family than a friend. So he became the brother I never asked.”
• [07:47–09:15]
  • Another close friend, Rich Isaacs, describes Khalil as a car enthusiast and “ladies man”—no signs he was leading a predatory double life.

3. The Deceptive Charmer, Secret Cruelty

• [10:18–12:07]
  • Despite outward normalcy, Khalil’s secret life emerges: by 2016, he regularly met up with sex workers.
• [10:58–11:43]
  • Accounts from women in his community contradict the “ladies man” image. One woman recalls him as an unnerving, “creepy older guy” persistently trying to pick her up.

4. Tiffany's Story: The Survivor Who Outsmarted a Serial Killer

• [12:07–21:01]
  • The episode’s pivotal sequence details Tiffany’s encounter with Khalil, beginning with persistent texts luring her out and culminating in a brutal assault.
  • Tiffany, homeless and four months pregnant, had a reputation for hustling men who tried to pay her for sex. Unbeknownst to her, the man blowing up her phone is Khalil, whose humiliation from a previous encounter motivates the attack.
  • [17:23] Tiffany's Testimony:
    • “Then he got back in the car, and it was a blur from there. And I woke up. I think he must have hit me over my head or something. I woke up in the backseat.”
  • She is violently assaulted, strangled, handcuffed, and duct-taped, but uses psychological tactics—leveraging his fear of being caught, convincing him she left evidence in her motel room (her phone with texts).
• [21:18–22:22]
  • Tiffany escapes and calls 911.
  • Notable Quote [23:48]:
    • Tiffany (to the dispatcher): “I know who did it. I know who did it, too.”
  • Wheeler-Weaver flees, and Tiffany’s clarity and determination to name her attacker mark a turning point in the investigation.

5. Cracks in the Mask: Past Incidents and Missed Warnings

• [25:38–27:11]
  • The hosts review Khalil’s earlier run-ins with the law, like involvement in the theft of iPods from Target, which did not raise alarm because of his polite demeanor and clean appearance.
  • [26:17]: Target manager: “He was always very polite. He didn't give any of that deceitful or anything…Just a handsome gentleman, the last person she ever suspected.”
• [27:48–28:42]
  • Previous coworker “Dennis” recounts Khalil’s morbid fascination:
    • Khalil: “Yeah, what you think is the best way to, you know, if you had to kill somebody, like, what would you do?” and later, “Well, you could try acid.”
  • Teased for being "soft," Khalil responded coldly:
    • “He just looked at me in my eyes, and he said, ‘Oh, you have no idea. I'm with the really bad and the ugly.’” [28:33]

6. Psychological Analysis: Explaining the Monster

• [31:04–34:46]
  • Dr. John White, serial killer psychologist, offers insight: lack of usual red flags; no animal cruelty beyond insects; no known abuse or trauma beyond losing father.
  • Suggests the roots may be in rejection by women and a humiliated sense of inadequacy.
  • [33:17]: Quoting Tiffany, “Why do I have to pay for a girl to show me attention?”
  • Dr. White: “So many…have these cognitive distortions about themselves…that humiliation (from the incident with Tiffany) could have fueled that.” [34:10]

7. The Fantasy and the Compulsion

• [34:46–36:17]
  • Dr. White observes sadistic patterns in Khalil’s method (strangling to unconsciousness and reviving victims—“the death game”).
  • Wheeler-Weaver is unusually young for a serial killer, but his fantasy life and urge for dominance may have begun long before.
  • [35:31]: Dr. White: “He strikes me as a person who's been fantasizing…And then he does it. And it's such a rush that he's got to do it again and again and again.”
  • The compulsion grows, and he is “good at hiding it most of the time,” fooling those around him.

8. After Tiffany’s Escape

• [36:41–37:22]
  • The episode ends by focusing on Tiffany’s courage and composure—making sure the police hear her:
    • [37:07]: “I know we did it. I know who did it, too…I'm not going outside. I'm scared.”
  • The stage is set for the next episode, as investigation intensifies and Wheeler-Weaver’s carefully managed mask begins to slip.

---

Memorable Quotes & Key Moments with Timestamps

• On Khalil’s persona:
  • Scott’s mom: “She said, don't bring that kid around again.” [02:01]
  • Adam Wells (Prosecutor): “He would commit a heinous crime, and he would go on about his day. So nothing had happened.” [04:16]
• Tiffany’s testimony:
  • “All I remember is I passed out and woke up about three times altogether from him strangling me.” [17:50]
  • “I was hoping I could say anything to get away and try to get into his head. Because, you know, the mouth could be like a weapon if you use it, right?” [18:42]
• On Khalil’s psychology:
  • Dr. John White: “...Taking heads off bees. Kids do that all the time...You start getting up into cats and larger animals. Then I would say, Oh, there's a sign.” [31:49–32:06]
  • “There's probably other variables, because generally, a parent dying doesn't push you to start killing women.” [32:21]
• On rejection and humiliation:
  • Khalil to Tiffany: “Why do I have to pay for a girl to show me attention?” [33:17]
  • Dr. White: “[That] could have fueled that by stealing his money and, oh, just total humiliation.” [34:10]

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Noteworthy Segment Timestamps

• Khalil’s Bee Incident/Scott’s impressions: [01:07–02:18]
• Ron Brown (Best friend) recalls their childhood & his loyalty: [04:40–06:24]
• First break in the mask—a survivor’s firsthand account (Tiffany): [12:07–23:48]
• Coworker Dennis on murder talk/“bad and ugly”: [27:48–28:42]
• Dr. White’s expert analysis: [31:04–36:17]
• Tiffany’s pivotal 911 call: [22:37–23:48], [37:07–37:22]

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Closing Thoughts

This episode expertly weaves the chilling reality of Khalil Wheeler-Weaver’s crimes with deeply human threads—his former relationships, the complexity of his mind, and the incredible strength of Tiffany, whose survival and refusal to stay silent ultimately exposed the serial killer hiding in plain sight. The hosts balance thorough reporting with empathy, ensuring the victims’ and survivors’ voices—and not just the murderer’s—form the heart of this true-crime narrative.

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Next Episode Preview:
A continued examination of how Tiffany, with “strong family, strong community support,” did not fit Wheeler-Weaver’s typical victim profile and how her actions spurred the investigation that would end his killing spree.

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For more on this case and bonus content:
Visit someoneshuntingus.com

Transcript

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

You're in your apartment alone. Then you hear something.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

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[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

A quick warning. This podcast deals with violence and sexual assault. Listener discretion is advised. Previously on Someone's hunting us.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

I think there's something happening. There's a. There's a.

[Rebecca Everett]

Like somebody's hurting us. Maybe she's somewhere captive and they're not letting her go. And we just got to wait till they find a.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

They asked, was she a street walker? That was his exact word.

[Rebecca Everett]

And I remember thinking like, what is a street walker?

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

Like, that's the whole term. And I'm like, no.

[Interviewee/Voice Actor]

Do it matter, though?

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

She missing.

[Rebecca Everett]

The dead bees were lined up on the window ledge. One tiny body after another. They were all decapitated.

[Interviewee/Voice Actor]

Where does she. I used to chop off bees heads.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

Scott worked security at Shoprite in 2016. There he befriended a quirky young man who also worked security at the supermarket

[Rebecca Everett]

in the tedious period. Standing by the door, waiting to chase down shoplifters, the young man opened up to him. He talked about girls and his dad dying in a tragic motorcycle accident. Scott, who asked that we only use his last name, said he thought about taking the younger kid under his wing.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

But there were those headless bees flying

[Interviewee/Voice Actor]

around, like when the doors open and shit. And he'll catch him and he'll put them on the legs and there'd be like four of them with no heads on.

[Rebecca Everett]

But otherwise he seemed like a normal kid. He chatted up the girls he worked with, and he just didn't stand out. Although when Scott's mother met him, she got a weird vibe, just a bad feeling. She said, don't bring that kid around again.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

And there was the way he used to talk about girls. It's pretty repulsive language.

[Interviewee/Voice Actor]

Like, yeah, I be going down fucking with these bitches. Fucking these bitches up.

[Rebecca Everett]

At the time, Scott thought he was just being over the top, bragging about his sexual prowess. But now he thinks it might have been the 20 year old's way of hinting he was killing those women. That summer and fall of 2016, in between shifts at Shoprite, he was driving around Newark with his kill kit, googling how to incapacitate or kill women more efficiently, luring them into his car. Strangling them in abandoned houses, even setting them on fire.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

And then going home for dinner with his mom and his cop stepdad on his quiet street on the good side of town.

[Rebecca Everett]

He looks like a little boy, but I think he's.

[Interviewee/Voice Actor]

He's a predator. No doubt about it.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

The young man's name is Khalil Wheeler Weaver.

[Rebecca Everett]

This is Someone's Hunting Us, a podcast by NJ.com and the Star Ledger about a serial killer you've never heard of and the women who took him down. I'm Rebecca Everett.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

And I'm Daisy Calabia Robertson. We've already shown you some of Khalil Wheeler Weaver's dark side. How he murdered and burned Robin west beyond recognition. How he left Joanne Brown's body in a house just blocks from his own.

[Rebecca Everett]

But he kept that side hidden because

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

his closest friends say he didn't act strange at all during this time.

[Rebecca Everett]

He had a girlfriend. He was hanging out with his boys almost every day, goofing off as usual. And his co workers say he was generally relaxed, disarming, even. Here's how Adam Wells, an assistant prosecutor, described it in court.

[Ron Brown]

He would commit a heinous crime, and

[Rebecca Everett]

he would go on about his day. So nothing had happened.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

We wanted to know more about both sides of this man, so we started with the people who knew him best, like his mother.

[Rebecca Everett]

We knocked on her door, ready with all our questions, and hopefully she might talk to us. But her answer was just two. I can't.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

So then we went to someone who was as close as family to Khalil, his best friend since he was 8 years old. Ron Brown. Ron agreed to talk with us at a restaurant, but only after he got the okay from his boy in prison. You guys talk almost every day.

[Rebecca Everett]

Every day?

[Ron Brown]

Every day. Not almost every day. If we don't speak, if I don't answer the phone, he gets worried. He don't call me, I get worried.

[Rebecca Everett]

Like mid interview, he stopped to take a call from Khalil.

[Interviewee/Voice Actor]

Shit.

[Ron Brown]

I'm at Fridays right now with the news reporters you asked me to talk to.

[Rebecca Everett]

People ask Ron how he can stay friends with a serial killer. The short answer is, Ron believes his friend is innocent on the most basic level. His argument is Khalil was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

Yeah, but five times?

[Rebecca Everett]

Well, he thinks police and even witnesses just pinned these crimes on him.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

Now, we know that's not true. But talking with him and his girlfriend, you can see they genuinely believe his friend didn't do it. And, I mean, they're basically Family.

[Rebecca Everett]

We talked a lot about Khalil as a little kid. There are photos of him on Facebook, swinging on the monkey bars with his tongue out. How could this cute little boy grow up to be a savage serial killer?

[Ron Brown]

My grandmother found a picture of us as kids, both of us with glasses on. That's how people remember us.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

Khalil lived on Mount Vernon Ave. In Orange with his dad, Curtis, his mom, and his older half brother. His parents wedding announcements said Curtis worked security and his wife was a letter carrier. We know she later became a masseuse.

[Rebecca Everett]

And then Ron moved in across the street.

[Ron Brown]

It became more family than a friend. So he became the brother. I never asked.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

They were privileged kids compared to a lot of people in Orange. But Khalil wasn't spoiled rotten.

[Ron Brown]

Mr. Curtis was very strict, but it was like showing you how to be a man kind of strict. Like, it was like on a weekend, like a Saturday. You just got an off date. Gotta mow the lawn.

[Rebecca Everett]

Curtis taught his son about music, too, introducing him to thousands of old school tracks on his turntables. That's how Khalil later got into mixing his own music and DJing at high school parties as DJ K swag.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

But when he was 14, his father died. A car struck Curtis motorcycle just blocks from their house.

[Ron Brown]

I won't say he ever changed, but I will say he was. It was different when his father passed away. I mean, yeah, we had our times where he was sad. How about his pops?

[Rebecca Everett]

Ron didn't give any details about what was different, but we'll come back to that later in the episode.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

Growing up, Khalil would get kind of obsessed with whatever new plan or idea he would come up with as a kid, he would always call up Ron with schemes to make money.

[Ron Brown]

He's like, look, my dad gave me this amount of money. If we go to the store and buy a bunch of candy and we sold it to downtown, we can go buy a bike.

[Rebecca Everett]

But Ron says as he got older, the plans were all about joining the military. Then it was all about joining law enforcement.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

I wonder if that's because Khalil's new stepdad was an East Orange cop, or

[Rebecca Everett]

was it all about seeking authority and power?

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

In high school, Khalil was a car guy. He spent almost every evening working on cars with another close friend, Rich Isaacs.

[Rebecca Everett]

And that continued into the fall of 2016. If Khalil wasn't working, they'd meet downtown in the parking lot of Orange Commons. They'd be fixing up Rich's Honda Civic or Kahlil's 15 year old BMW. Meanwhile, Rich had no idea his best friend was out stalking the streets for victims.

[Ron Brown]

You see it on tv, but you never think it'd happen to you in your town, in your life. That's shit. I'm still shocked to this day. That this guy could live is impossible. I'm still lost.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

We met Rich at the auto repair shop he owns in Orange and jumped into his car. He was so busy, he was texting with an insurance agent and driving with his knees. So we just started asking him questions.

[Rebecca Everett]

Rich and Kahlil were once so close, he was willing to lie to the cops to protect his friend. Yeah, we'll get into that later too.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

They don't speak regularly anymore. Rich didn't deny his friend committed these crimes. But I think he also hasn't really come to terms with the truth either.

[Rebecca Everett]

So here's the thing that really surprised us. Ron and Rich both described Khalil as a ladies man. Smooth in his nerd chic way.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

I guess we were like this guy. But Rich told us about one time in particular when he realized he was gonna have to step up his game around his friend.

[Ron Brown]

It was Hickory street in Orange. He was like his khaki pants, he had a little fro, his glasses on. And we were talking to some girls and the girl I was talking to ended up dismissing me and Orange for Khalil.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

He said Khalil had girlfriends and even had one in the fall of 2016. Again, that's when he was killing. She was a Rutgers student. We tried multiple ways to speak with her, but she never responded.

[Rebecca Everett]

So this was the picture of Khalil his friends painted. A little kid playing football in the park, losing his dad at 14, then getting a new stepdad, the East Orange cop. Then he's at a high school working and like a lot of young men trying to meet girls.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

But that's not the whole story. He was also paying for sex.

[Rebecca Everett]

Now, we can't say for sure when he started seeking out sex workers. We just know that by the spring of 2016, when he was only 19, he was meeting with them with some regularity.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

Here's Rich.

[Ron Brown]

Yeah, I don't see him needing to pay for sex that was shocking or like that tagged or whatever that shit

[Rebecca Everett]

was on its own. Khalil paying sex workers isn't so shocking. More than a quarter of men have even guys with girlfriends. But it was a sign Khalil was starting a secret double life because he certainly wasn't telling his friends about this side of him.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

I also talked to a woman who definitely did not consider Khalil a ladies man. She lived in Orange and said she was 16 when her friends started seeing Khalil. It was 2015 after he graduated. She told me Khalil was that creepy older guy who would come around West Orange High after school to try to pick up younger girls.

[Rebecca Everett]

She briefly met Khalil and and not long after, she was leaving a chicken joint near her house when she ran into him. He kept trying to pick her up, get her in his car, even though she barely knew him.

[Interviewee/Voice Actor]

And I thought it was very freaking strange. Like he was very like, let me take you home, like very persistent. I'm like, I could walk. I live up the street. You don't gotta take me nowhere. But he was strange.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

We don't know what would have happened if she had gotten in his car.

[Rebecca Everett]

But after the break, what happened to another woman who did go with him?

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

Because of her, we know what Khalil Wheeler Weaver is really capable of.

[Rebecca Everett]

Tiffany pulled on a pink North Face jacket. She stepped out into the chilly November night, punishment pausing on the second floor balcony of the shitty motel where she was staying.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

The 34 year old was four months pregnant and homeless. A guy she knew had rented the room at a motel in Elizabeth, a city just south of Newark. He was a crackhead, but it had been pouring that day and at least it was a dry place to sleep.

[Rebecca Everett]

Earlier that day, Tiffany's phone began blowing up. Some mystery man had gotten her number and for weeks he'd been begging her for sex.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

She had given up sex work, but now she had a different hustle. When a guy would try to pay her for sex, she'd just take his money and split. Rob him.

[Rebecca Everett]

Like this one con. Seven months earlier, a friend who did sex work introduced her to a skinny 19 year old kid in Orange. She called Youngin. He loved Tiffany's vibe, her dreadlocks, her attitude that she could drive stick shift. He offered her $200 for sex and she agreed.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

He asked her if she did roleplay stuff, but she had no intention of doing anything with this kid in his sad twin sized bed. She asked for the money up front, then told him, my bad, I left the condoms in the car.

[Rebecca Everett]

And then she drove away with his money, leaving the young man stewing in humiliation.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

But that was back in April. On this chilly night in November. Tiffany certainly wasn't thinking about Youngin. She had no idea Khalil Wheeler Weaver had been snatching women off the streets, strangling them and getting away with it.

[Rebecca Everett]

And she had no idea he was the man calling her all day, offering more and more money for sex, until she finally said yes. But she would take his money and split like always. Now the number that had been blowing up her phone sent a text. I'm here. She headed downstairs, the desperate hustler meeting

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

the sadistic serial killer, neither expecting how wrong everything would go.

[Rebecca Everett]

We really wanted to meet and interview Tiffany. She's the only person we know who's seen Khalil Wheeler Weaver at his most violent and live to tell.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

But we realize it's a really difficult thing to talk about, and she declined our requests.

[Rebecca Everett]

So what we know about Tiffany's life before this fateful night comes from an interview she gave NorthJersey.com five years ago. She told the reporter she grew up in a notoriously violent housing project in Jersey City. She had guns pulled on her and watched two boyfriends get killed in front of her.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

She dropped out of college in Florida and got pregnant in New Jersey. She worked minimum wage jobs at McDonald's, movie theaters and the mall. Then she became addicted to drugs and got into sex work.

[Rebecca Everett]

You are going to hear Tiffany's words in this episode. We'll have a voice actor read her testimony from court. And this is a good time to warn you that while this podcast is dark, this next part may be especially hard to listen to because it involves descriptions of a violent sexual assault.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

Tiffany described how she headed downstairs from the motel balcony that night in November to meet this mysterious man who'd been calling and texting.

[Rebecca Everett]

He was almost completely covered up despite the almost 50 degree night. He was wearing a balaclava concealing most of his face but not his brown eyes. The hood was up on his black jacket and he was wearing the tight black gloves from his kill kit.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

He kept saying that he was cold, I guess trying to say that's why he had on a ski mask and gloves.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

Of course, now we know why he covered up. He didn't want Tiffany to recognize him, to possibly realize he was the same guy she'd conned that spring.

[Rebecca Everett]

Tiffany had no intention of having sex with him, but went into the motel office and asked about a room as he requested, but they were waved off.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

I was telling him that they are not giving up no rooms without ID and stuff like that. And I told him I would check and see if maybe we could get one down further because I knew people there at this other hotel.

[Rebecca Everett]

The man climbed into the passenger seat of a Lincoln, which Tiffany had borrowed from her friend who got her the room. The two of them went to a nearby gas station. She bought cigarettes and a drink with some of the $80 the guy in the ski mask had given her.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

Tiffany said she took him to another motel, but but the rate was too expensive. Ready to be done with him, she told him they were heading back to her motel and that they weren't going

[Rebecca Everett]

to have sex within a few blocks. The man asked her to pull over so he could take a leak. She turned onto a side street, pulled over, and he got out.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

Then he got back in the car, and it was a blur from there. And I woke up. I think he must have hit me over my head or something. I woke up in the backseat.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

Tiffany testified that Khalil was raping her as she came to. She demonstrated in court how he had his arms tight around the front of her neck in a chokehold. How everything went dark again.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

All I remember is I passed out and woke up about three times altogether from him strangling me.

[Rebecca Everett]

The third time she came to, she was weak, but she still tried to scratch his face. He pulled out handcuffs and cuffed her hands behind her back. Then he wrapped duct tape around her head, covering her nose and mouth.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

That's when Khalil began whispering in her ear. He told her, I wish we would have been in her room. I would have demolished you.

[Rebecca Everett]

Tiffany struggled to breathe. She'd lost a few teeth and bitten her tongue in the struggle. But the blood, tears, and sweat soon loosened the duct tape enough so she could speak.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

And that's when she used her voice to save her life.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

I was hoping I could say anything to get away and try to get into his head. Because, you know, the mouth could be like a weapon if you use it, right?

[Rebecca Everett]

By then, Tiffany had seen him remove a condom he was wearing. He climbed into the front seat, watching her. If he was going to kill her, the time was drawing near.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

Khalil told her he was going to put her in the trunk and drive her to his side of town.

[Rebecca Everett]

She asked him to loosen the handcuffs a little and begged him not to stuff her in the trunk. For some reason, he listened.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

I said, you almost killed me. And he said, no, I didn't. I was just putting you out. I know what I was doing. I did this before. He was speaking, like, really calm, like he wasn't nervous or nothing. Like just calm and collected.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

Then Khalil Wheeler Weaver took off the balaclava. When he finally revealed his face, Tiffany was sure he intended to kill her.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

He said, do I look familiar? You don't remember me? And I'm like, from where? And he was like, you took my money?

[Rebecca Everett]

He wasn't shouting at her, just talking. But he clearly made a choice. He targeted her. And he wanted this woman to know. You thought you got one over on me, but now look who's in control.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

But she had one card left to play. She told them all the evidence the cops needed to lock him up was sitting right there in her motel room.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

I told him I had left my phone in the room with all our texts going back and forth. He got a little excited, his voice got high, and he said, oh, no, we gotta go back and get that phone.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

Tiffany gave him an even better idea. Bring me back to the motel. I'll give you my phone, and my friend will pay you. We could go get a few thousand dollars from an atm, and then you could let us go.

[Rebecca Everett]

So Khalil got behind the wheel and drove back to Tiffany's motel. Somehow, only an hour had gone by since he showed up.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

Surveillance video captured him parking the Lincoln, getting out and opening the back door. He leaned in to take off the duct tape around her head, leaving abrasions on her nose, cheeks and ears. He draped her coat over her shoulders to hide the cuffs.

[Rebecca Everett]

Khalil hid by the stairs, watching as she climbed to the balcony and turned toward her room. She kicked the door of room 32, hoping her friend inside would open it.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

And like a miracle, the door opened. She jumped inside and slammed it shut behind her.

[Rebecca Everett]

In a heartbeat, Khalil was flying up the stairs. But he was too late.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

He was banging on the door because I wasn't supposed to shut the door when I went in. So he was banging on the door and he was yelling, you lie. You lie. Come back out. After a while, I opened up the blind and showed him that I was out of one cuff. And that's when he ran off.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

She knew he was still out there, lurking in the parking lot. He still had the keys to the Lincoln. And she didn't know what else he might have.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

I was scared. I didn't know if he had a gun or knife or if he was gonna kick the door in and finish me off.

[Rebecca Everett]

She asked her roommate to call 91 1. He didn't understand what had happened, but he told the dispatcher that someone had tried to hurt her. Then he passed her the phone. This is the recording of Tiffany on that call.

[Interviewee/Voice Actor]

Hello? Hello? The ritz Motel on 1 and 9 Elizabeth. What was that? Ritz Motel 109 and Elizabeth Motel. Yes, that somebody that tried to Hurt you and take your keys? Yes. Somebody just kidnapped me. Okay. All right. They. They have his car keys and they. I don't know if they stood outside. They probably ran off by now when they see I didn't come back out. Who did they kidnap? I was kidnapped. Yeah, you were. And they just. Yeah, they just took your car keys. They took my friend's car keys and. Yes, and how long ago did they kidnap you? Okay. This happened. They just. I don't. I can't even explain it right now. This is all within the last hour.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

Maybe listening to that call, you can hear how shaky Tiffany's voice is. She's terrified. Terrified this deranged man is still outside and terrified that the brutal attack might have hurt her unborn baby. But she was incredibly clear about one last point.

[Interviewee/Voice Actor]

I know who did it. I know who did it, too.

[Rebecca Everett]

Ever wonder where Tropicana got its name? The tropics.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

And every time you enjoy a glass,

[Rebecca Everett]

you're not just drinking juice. You're taking a trip. Stepping into sunshine, and embarking on a flavorful journey into. Into the tropics, where ripe fruit is crafted into wildly delicious juice. And the best part. No passport required. Tropicana. Give life some juice.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. Now, I was looking for fun ways

[Dr. John White]

to tell you that Mint's offer of

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

unlimited Premium Wireless for $15 a month is back.

[Rebecca Everett]

So I thought it would be fun

[Dr. John White]

if we made $15 bills, but it

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a [e-mail] Switch upfront payment of $45 for three months, $90 for six months, or $180 for a 12 month plan required $15 per month, equivalent

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

to taxes and fees.

[Rebecca Everett]

Extra initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

Me slow when network is busy. See terms.

[Rebecca Everett]

While Tiffany was waiting for the police to arrive at the motel, her attacker was driving home, where he would slide back into the role of the good son. But the facade wasn't perfect. It started slipping long before Khalil Wheeler Weaver killed his victims and kidnapped Tiffany. This artifice of a polite young man, of a hard working kid, of a future cop who just wanted to help his friends, help the police, help girls like Robin west get dominoes and a place to crash.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

But every little moment where he lost control revealed a glimpse of the monster. They were subtle warnings both years before and during his killing spree.

[Rebecca Everett]

Old acquaintances creeped out by his behavior. Co workers unnerved by odd comments, encounters with police after he lost his temper or got caught stealing.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

Khalil's good manners and calm demeanor seemed to win everyone over at his job. At the Target in East Hanover.

[Rebecca Everett]

Angela Zorra was the head of loss prevention there. In December 2014, when thousands of dollars in ipod touch devices went missing, police

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

found some of the ipods were resold to several gamestops. Of the employees involved in the theft, she said one name was a complete shocker. Khalil Wheeler Weaver.

[Interviewee/Voice Actor]

When we realized it was him after the investigation, it took us a minute to put the face to the name because he was just. He was always very polite. He didn't give any of that deceitful or anything. In that sense.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

She literally called him a handsome gentleman, the last person she ever suspected. But he eventually took a plea deal and was ordered to pay restitution.

[Rebecca Everett]

In court, the judge saw what everyone else saw in those days. A good, respectful kid who made a mistake, not a devious criminal.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

I think he even had, like, a blue shirt or it could be just

[Rebecca Everett]

the memory from everything I'd seen in the news at this point, But I remember he just had, like, a button down and slacks. And his stepfather, at the time, I

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

thought it was his father was a police officer. And they came up and he pleaded with the judge.

[Rebecca Everett]

He has no previous offenses. And that was.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

Was about 18 months before he would start killing.

[Rebecca Everett]

People who worked with him later remembered strange conversations, like maybe his obsession with killing couldn't be contained.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

Scott already told us about Khalil saying he was, quote, fucking these bitches up. But at his previous job at FedEx, Khalil had been even more explicit. A co worker who just wants to go by Dennis said their job was to fill up giant trucks. It was boring work, and they talked about all sorts of random stuff to pass the time. But Khalil took it to weird places.

[Interviewee/Voice Actor]

He ended up, like, just asking me, like, crazy questions, like, random questions, like, yeah, what you think is the best way to, you know, if you had to kill somebody, like, what would you do?

[Rebecca Everett]

Dennis was like, I don't know, maybe an ice pick. But then his co worker just kept talking about it.

[Interviewee/Voice Actor]

He's like, yo, how would you get rid of the body? And I'm like, I don't know. Like, I ain't never think about all that. And he was like, well, you could try acid.

[Rebecca Everett]

You could try acid like on Breaking Bad.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

This is not normal bullshitting at work. But still, why would you think he was serious?

[Rebecca Everett]

But there was another moment that stood Out. Dennis was from Newark, and he teased Khalil for acting hard, like, you're an eloquent kid from a decent neighborhood. What do you know about the streets?

[Interviewee/Voice Actor]

I told him, like, you ain't violent, man. Y' all some punks in arms. He just looked at me in my eyes, and he said, oh, you have no idea. He said, I'm with the really bad and the ugly.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

The bad and the ugly. And Dennis knows now it was the

[Rebecca Everett]

truth, but it seems like Khalil was good at hiding it most of the time. He never faced violent charges before the killings, but there were a couple of times when his rage seemed to bubble over. He got in trouble a couple times for not complying with an officer.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

Like in January 2015, when he got pulled over for tailgating a cop. The report says he refused to roll down his tinted windows, and they called backup. Here's Rebecca reading the report.

[Rebecca Everett]

The driver finally rolled down his window and began to become belligerent, with officers stating, why the fuck did I get pulled over? I don't have to show you shit, crazy.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

Cause that's the opposite of how he acted when officers asked him about Robin West.

[Rebecca Everett]

The friction between Khalil's two lives is showing. But this dark side, how did it even start?

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

I feel like with any crime, we always want to know why. How could someone do this?

[Rebecca Everett]

Like, how can someone go from this little kid on the monkey bars to a monster who becomes obsessed with sadistic sex and killing?

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

I talked to a girl named Lin, who was friends with him until middle school. She said, at that age, most of his friends were girls. One day, when they were 14, after hours of hanging out and having fun, Khalil delivered a monologue about his dad that she and her brothers will never forget.

[Interviewee/Voice Actor]

So we were sitting in the hallway of the building, and out of nowhere, he said, oh, yeah, my father got killed. He got hit by a Mexican, and now I hate all Mexicans. Like, that is his. His exact statement. And it got really quiet. It got really awkward.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

The racism was shocking enough, but what really creeped her out is that he showed zero emotion as he said it. And he'd just been joking and laughing. Earlier, she wondered if he was a psychopath. Maybe he'd been putting on an act.

[Interviewee/Voice Actor]

I told my brother straight up, like, after today, if he comes knocking on the door, ringing the bell, don't open that door because it's something weird going on with him.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

So was it just a kid not knowing how to act about his dad's death? Or was this Someone with serious emotional issues.

[Rebecca Everett]

We decided to take all our questions to an expert in serial killer psychology. I was searching for just the right person when I realized he was basically right in my backyard here in Jersey. Are you Dr. White? Hi, Rebecca. Nice to meet you. Yes.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

Dr. White kind of sounds like a character from Clue.

[Rebecca Everett]

John White is a psychology professor and a former cop who studies and interviews serial killers. He said his students have done reports on Khalil Willey Weaver for a profiling class. He's an interesting case study because he doesn't seem to have any abuse or other red flags in his past.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

Yeah, but what about the bees? You always hear that serial killers get their start by being cruel to animals.

[Rebecca Everett]

Yeah. I shared with him everything we'd learned

[Dr. John White]

about Khalil, including that, you know, taking heads off bees. Kids do that all the time. You know, kill insects or experiment with insects. You start getting up into cats and larger animals. Then I would say, oh, there's a sign.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

Okay. But even if there were no warning signs, I wonder if he even had time to develop any. I mean, this guy had a sadistic second life before he could even legally drink. What about the trauma of his dad's death? Did it affect him in some crazy, disturbed way?

[Dr. John White]

It kind of depends on where he was in his emotional development when his father died. There's probably other variables, because generally, a parent dying doesn't push you to start killing women.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

So what about Those other variables? Dr. White and two other experts told us serial killers sometimes kill women out of anger at their mothers. But Khalil seemed to have a fine relationship with his.

[Rebecca Everett]

They all speculated that Khalil was fueled by rejection, probably from women, whether it was real or perceived.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

And there is evidence to back this theory up. It's from Tiffany. Her survival means she's the only window we have into his actions during these attacks. And she told NorthJersey.com, that Khalil said something to her in the car that night about no one wanting him. He said, why do I have to pay for a girl to show me attention?

[Interviewee/Voice Actor]

Right.

[Rebecca Everett]

That's what was on his mind at that moment. Like, here he is torturing a woman, and he's feeling sorry for himself.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

It doesn't seem like he couldn't get a girlfriend or dates. And we heard he was always trying to talk to girls, but maybe he wasn't getting what he wanted or felt he deserved from them.

[Rebecca Everett]

One expert said it came from low self esteem, feeling inadequate. And remember what he wrote on his Twitter?

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

Yeah, I scrolled it all he was just out of high school and posting about wanting a girlfriend and like, bitches love me. But for some reason I can't find any. I mean, it was two years before the murders. But it does fit with the theory.

[Rebecca Everett]

I told Dr. White about how Tiffany had robbed Khalil seven months before the attack when he was trying to pay her for sex. But he said it's probably not one incident that led to those feelings of rejection.

[Dr. John White]

It's like a perfect storm of situations that have happened and how he perceives those. So many of the serial killers have these cognitive distortions about themselves. So he could have that. And it's not her fault, of course, but that certainly could have fused, fueled that by stealing his money and, oh, just total humiliation.

[Rebecca Everett]

Attacking these women gave him back the power he craved. Even worse. Khalil Wheeler Weaver, however nice his friends said he was, clearly enjoyed the suffering of his victims.

[Dr. John White]

So if he's making them go unconscious and then bringing them back and then doing it again, that's called the death game, suffocation game. That's clearly sadistic behavior.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

Khalil was very young for a serial killer, Dr. White said. Most are between 25 and 35 when they first kill. But almost all of them have been fantasizing about it for years. And that may include khalil.

[Rebecca Everett]

So that 18 year old who went to prom in a teal vest and bow tie with a date on his arm, he might have already been fantasizing about raping and murdering. He'd even asked Tiffany back when he was 19 if she did roleplaying. Maybe that was about this fantasy.

[Dr. John White]

He strikes me as a person who's been fantasizing. Fantasizing, fantasizing. And then he does it. And it's such a rush that he's got to do it again and again and again.

[Rebecca Everett]

For serial killers, it's similar to addiction. Their urge for that dopamine rush. And 20 year olds have terrible impulse

[Dr. John White]

control, especially the immature. Inexperienced killers will feel that rush and then want it as fast as they can. No delayed gratification.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

The experts universally said Khalil wasn't sophisticated. Wearing a condom and gloves and wiping down a car. You can learn all that from watching csi. He took his cell phone to every crime scene. His search history was damning, but they

[Rebecca Everett]

said he was good at one. Pulling on that mask and hiding the monster within. Presenting only the nerdy, nice young man.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

This Persona was all his friends could see. And it worked to make his victims feel comfortable as they got in his car with a skinny guy who still looked like he might be in high school. And it worked when he played the part of the good guy with police.

[Rebecca Everett]

But would he have to turn it off on again for Elizabeth police? He had to assume that Tiffany would call 911 from the motel after she outsmarted him and escaped.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

I wonder if he was driving home worrying about whether she knew his real name or whether police would believe her.

[Rebecca Everett]

But she would do everything she could to get him. It was clear from the moment she spoke to that police dispatcher.

[Interviewee/Voice Actor]

I know we did it. I know who did it, too. We'll send the. We'll send the police to you. Is there a room number? Are you waiting in the lobby? 32. I'm not going outside. I'm scared. Okay, so you lock yourself in the room and stand there. All right? All right, Bye.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

Next time on Someone's Hunting Us.

[Interviewee/Voice Actor]

Why do you have a handcuff on your arm? I got kidnapped and they handcuff your one arm. This is a person who comes from a strong family, strong community support. She did not fit what he thought was his typical profile.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

He just took his shirt off and said, okay. And what we saw, like a scratch on his tricep.

[Rebecca Everett]

Someone's Hunting Us is a production of NJ Advanced Media.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

The podcast is reported and produced by me, Daisy Kalavia Robertson and Rebecca Everett. Our executive producers are Christopher Kelly, Jessica Beam, Jeff Roberts, and and Jess Mazzola.

[Rebecca Everett]

This podcast is recorded and mixed by Alex Graves at Sound on Sound Studios in Montclair, New Jersey. Our composer is Blake Maples. James Shapiro is our associate audio engineer. Our website is designed by Alaa Saleem. Our voice actor for this episode is Melissa Hanson.

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

Special thanks to each and every person who shared their story with us.

[Rebecca Everett]

If you want to see photos, videos, timelines and and other extras from this story, check out our website, someoneshuntingus.com youm can contact us at inboxomeoneshuntingus.com Follow Someone's

[Daisy Calabia Robertson]

Hunting Us and if you're enjoying it, please rate and review it. Word of mouth is huge, so please help spread the word.